The Circuit – A Multi-Genre Convention-Based Anthology Movie that Involves YOU

The Circuit is described as the first ever multi-genre anthology film. So whatever genre you might be into this anthology film will have it, spies, monsters, Scifi timetable, fantasy, comedy, drama, etc…each episode of the film anthology with be a different genre.

That description is a mouthful.

I’d describe it as a smorgasbord buffet of viewing pleasure.

No matter what genre you are into, you will find it in this anthology series. Spies, zombies, dark comedy, thrills, horrors, multi-dimensional time travel, supernatural, romance it’s all here.

If you’ve ever been around the convention scene, as a fan, a professional, an employee, or just a worker, I’m sure that you have heard some interesting tales. We’ve all heard the stories that begin “a strange thing happened on the way to the con” and “You’ll never believe what happened at the con…” And each retelling of the more outrageous tales get more fantastical as they pass from person to person.

Now take every amusing, interesting, or horrifying convention story you know and twist them slightly to fit into your favorite genre, add thousands of people packed into a convention center and you have The Circuit.

This smorgasbord of filming tidbits is the brain child of Manu Intirarymi and Walter Koenig, who after being involved in fan sponsored films decided it was time to produce a film of their own and team up actors, writers, and professionals with the Fanbase. They wanted something they could make for the fans and with the fans. The Circuit is their child, now it’s up to the fans if they want to come make this movie come to life. This is everyone’s opportunity to tell their convention stories, on what is the 50th anniversary of the convention circuit. This may be our only opportunity.

So if you want to see a movie in the genre you love, about stories you know, in locations you know pledge on the The Circuit Kickstarter or via PayPal through www.thecircuitfilm.com

I had the opportunity to speak with Manu Intirarymi, the brain behind this project. It has been something he has been dreaming about for 10 years.

PopCultHQ – What do you think is the biggest challenge of this project?

I think getting everybody on board. We want to also get some of the bigger names. We are working on getting actors for the middle of the poster type of actors. We got Sylvester McCoy to sign on to the script which leads to another and another.

The writing is also a challenge. Its nine stories that occur at one mega conventions. It has to be written really, really well and we have had to search through a lot of screenplays to find ones that flow with what we have. We need to find stories that we can connect.

PopCultHQ – Where did the idea for The Circuit come from?

I’ve always wanted to produce. I started going to cons at 21 on my 2nd year of Star Trek Voyager and I was immediately blasted by the surrealism of the environment. You get to see so much that the fans don’t that is so strange and so surreal. And a few years into it I started trading stories with the others.

One that stands out involves [two well known actors] that were being driven to the airport by a promoter. They get pulled over and the promoter turned out to be a large scale criminal that was wanted for all sorts of things, and the cops just arrested the promoter and left them sitting there in the car, 45 minutes from the airport in the middle of nowhere…they just ended up driving the rest of the way to the airport and just leaving the car.

All these stories are so amazing. My whole life I have been a fan of anthology films – Twilight Zone, Tales From the Crypt, Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories. I loved the idea of a self-contained episode and I love the films like Sin City and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. And what are conventions, but places where we go to celebrate the genres we love. So I thought let’s take a bunch of these true stories and add the Hollywood genres to the them and dress them up!

PopCultHQ– What evolution has the film seen since its inception?

It was originally going to be from the actors perspective until a closing ceremony at a convention in Germany. I looked out at the crowd and I started to make eye contact with a bunch of different and interesting people who had shared part of their con life stories with me over the weekend. I went “oh their stories are great! Oh my god all the stories are out there, it’s not just up here, it’s all over.”

Then I thought if we are going to do an anthology film about the convention scene that we need to use all of them. And this is where the idea of having the fans submit their stories came from.

From there we got the actors attached, wrote five screenplays and then we sat back and started reading fan submissions and picking scripts that work with the story we have weaving through the whole thing.

PopCultHQ – Where do you plan to film?

We hope all over the place, in the end it is a $1.5M budget and that is doing it super cheap, if we do it how we want to do it, in multiple places at multiple conventions. If we don’t make it then we will be forced to do it all at one convention.

We wanted to raise $450K at this initial Kickstarter, it looks we will probably just make our initial goal, but that is enough to film an initial episode. That is enough to sit down with investors and try to get matching funds and build our budget. So depending on whether we get the $1.5M will depend if we get to film at different conventions and at different locations.

And then we are going to have to make deals with the different conventions.

PopCultHQ– What do you mean?

You can’t shoot during the day on the convention floor, it’s just too noisy. We should have to shoot at night on the convention floor and then we would have to bring in volunteer extras from the convention that day. We would shoot during the night. I think it would be really fun. It depends on whatever budget we have at the end. If it goes the way we dream it to be it will be a few conventions around the world at multiple locations.

The Circuit is fan-fueled endeavor which means that you, our readers, and the fans of conventions, movies and actors can help push this along and make this film happen. It is currently in a Kickstarter campaign and you can contribute to it. They have several different rewards levels for pledging money, but there is one reward that makes it definitely worthwhile.

Everyone that supports the campaign has a chance to come on set and work on the film collaboration in one form or another. For EVERY episode that they film they will bring in one sponsor fan to each department. That means many fans have the opportunity to work on each episode.

Departments include:

Props

Wardrobe

Filming

Art

Makeup

Scriptwriting

Acting

Directing

Special effects

And so many more that I can’t even think of them.

If you donate to the campaign, send a letter, resume or whatever you think appropriate to Manu at manuintiraymi@thecircuitfilm.com. Just let him know where you would like to work and why. They will then select one person to work on each department during the filming of each episode.

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